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From the former editor-in-chief of Nylon comes a provocative and intimate collection of personal and cultural essays featuring eye-opening explorations of hot button topics for modern women, including internet feminism, impossible beauty standards in social media, shifting ideals about sexuality, and much more.
Gabrielle Korn starts her professional life with all the right credentials. Prestigious college degree? Check. A loving, accepting family? Check. Instagram-worthy offices and a tight-knit group of friends? Check, check. Gabrielle’s life seems to reach the crescendo of perfect when she gets named the youngest editor-in-chief in the history of one of fashion’s most influential publication. Suddenly she’s invited to the world’s most epic parties, comped beautiful clothes and shoes from trendy designers, and asked to weigh in on everything from gay rights to lip gloss on one of the most influential digital platforms.
But behind the scenes, things are far from perfect. In fact, just a few months before landing her dream job, Gabrielle’s health and wellbeing are on the line, and her promotion to editor-in-chief becomes the ultimate test of strength. In this collection of inspirational and searing essays, Gabrielle reveals exactly what it’s truly like in the fashion world, trying to find love as a young lesbian in New York City, battling with anorexia, and trying not to lose herself in a mirage of women’s empowerment and Instagram perfection.
Through deeply personal essays, Gabrielle recounts her struggles to reconcile her long-held insecurities about her body while coming out in the era of The L Word, where swoon-worthy lesbians are portrayed as skinny, fashion-perfect, and power-hungry. She takes us with her everywhere from New York Fashion Week to the doctor’s office, revealing that the forces that try to keep women small are more pervasive than anyone wants to admit, especially in a world that’s been newly branded as woke.
From #MeToo to commercialized body positivity, Korn’s biting, darkly funny analysis turns feminist commentary on its head. Both an in-your-face take on impossible beauty standards and entrenched media ideals and an inspiring call for personal authenticity, this powerful collection is ideal for fans of Roxane Gay and Rebecca Solnit.
Author: Gabrielle Korn
Paperback Published 26 January 2021 272 pages
“A captivating page-turner that feels exclusive without resorting to cattiness or cheap gossip. . . . She simultaneously digs below the surface of an industry that often feels skin deep, while divulging integral parts of her own history along the way. Granting front row access to an exclusive world many of us will never experience firsthand, she makes feminism and fashion feel like cohorts in her compulsively readable book.” -- Tegan Quin, New York Times bestselling author of High School
“Gabrielle perfectly captures the feeling both of growing up as a woman in the early aughts as well as working in the digital landscape during the boom period of the last decade . . . She candidly shares personal anecdotes about discovering her sexuality, dealing with assault, and coping with an eating disorder, weaving together both a keen self-awareness and a frank analysis of the society which helped shape her experiences. Everybody (Else) Is Perfect is, well, perfect.” -- Tyler McCall, editor in chief, Fashionista
“Gabrielle’s commitment to taking fashion and beauty seriously—in ways that presaged much of women’s media at the time—has been a true through-line of her career. I have learned so much just by getting to hear Gabrielle speak, and I am so excited that readers will get to hear her voice—in its unadulterated, sometimes comical candor—with this book. By the end, you’ll be calling her your friend, too.” -- Phil Picardi, editor in chief of Out magazine and former editor in chief of Teen Vogue